The Other Side of Silence

This chapter opens with a discussion of the historical relationship between the press and the Peruvian state in the years prior to 1980; it then examines the press’s reaction to the opening wave of the insurgency, when media institutions responded to the confusion of facts with a confidence in opinions. As the conflict progressed and the state security forces took control of both the designated emergency zones and the information flow from them, the media resorted to sensationalist stories of the violence. The resulting coverage played on the emotional responses of its readers, but most often was unable to humanize or personalize the violence in a manner that would encourage accountability for the crimes. The rise of Peru’s national intelligence service in the 1990s saw the continued obfuscation of information provided to the public. Eventually, SIN established a scheme of systematic corruption that allowed it to control the national media in an attack that went beyond civil liberties and threatened the very foundation of Peruvian democracy.